James Beard

Ryan McCaskey, chef/owner of Acadia (1639 S. Wabash Ave., 312-360-9500), will be guest-chef at New York City's James Beard House later this month. It's a nice showcase for any chef, and participants usually spare no effort to impress the influential diners there. You could fly to New York for the August 22 dinner. Or, you could make reservations at Acadia this weekend, when the menu McCaskey will prepare in New York will be available here. The five-course menu, which will have a...

The James Beard Foundation Awards, considered the Oscars of the American restaurant scene, is moving its 25th anniversary ceremony to Chicago in 2015. It will be held at the Civic Opera House May 4 and would be the first time the ceremony is hosted outside New York since the awards' inception in 1990. Mayor Rahm Emanuel made the announcement Tuesday morning at Pritzker Pavilion. "People ... come from all over the country, all over the world to the city of Chicago to...

Q: I really did enjoy everyone celebrating Julia Child's birthday. But, I do remember another chef that was on television before her, James Beard. I remember seeing his cooking shows and I guess there are no tapes or films that were saved, or maybe there were two in the Library of Congress. So, I was researching James Beard and how they made a museum out of his town house in Greenwich Village and guest chefs put on wonderful food events there. I came across some information that James Beard...

Chicago chefs and restaurants continued their streak of a respectable showing at the 2014 James Beard Foundation Awards. The annual awards gala, dubbed the “Oscars” of the American culinary scene, was held Monday in New York. Unlike last year, when Paul Kahan was a co-winner in the outstanding chef category (considered a national award), this year's Chicago representation was more subdued. (This reporter is a voting member of the James Beard Foundation.) Only three names...

The James Beard Foundation Awards, the lavish, annual tip-of-the-cap to chefs and restaurants, announced its semifinalist list for 2013. It's arguably the highest honor in the American culinary field, and debating which Chicago names will make the cut is a yearly local sport. (To be clear, the list announced Tuesday was its semifinalists list. Finalists will be named on March 18.) For Outstanding Restaurant, awarded to an American...

It's a great week for Jacquy Pfeiffer. Straight off his prestigious cookbook award win on Saturday, he's been nominated for another, arguably as well-regarded. Pfeiffer's book “The Art of French Pastry” was nominated today for a James Beard Foundation award, in the Baking and Dessert category. (Several Chicago chefs and restaurants also were nominated for Beard awards today.) Pfeiffer's nomination is like icing on the gateau after his International Association of Culinary...

They`re called the Bluffer's Guides: Paperback books with Cliff Notes-style courses in dining and drinking basics on a level slightly higher than what's served in corner taverns and fast-food restaurants. If you want to use them for gastronomic pretention, so be it. "Bluff Your Way in Wine" by Alan Fulmer and Harry Eyres outlines some vinous terminology, gives guidance on label comprehension and explains growing regions in Europe, Australia, South America and the U.S. In...

Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler, narrated by Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes, Macmillan, 9:58, $27.99 The South may be known for great storytelling, but Nickolas Butler ups the ante for the Great Lakes with "Shotgun Lovesongs," his debut tale of small-town friendships and love set in Little Wing, Wis. The cast assembled to narrate this book proves that listening to novels can be so much more than...

By 9:30 a.m. every seat in the salesroom was taken, yet the memorabilia seekers, antique dealers and curious onlookers, dripping wet from the rain, continued to stream through the auction house doors, pushing their way into the heat and the crowd. Barely 30 minutes later, lot no. 1 from the estate of the late James Beard had been gaveled down. "It certainly has been used," quipped auctioneer William Doyle about the kitchen scale, which went for $125. Other personal and...

Marion Cunningham was a cookbook author who tirelessly championed home cooking. She served, too, as den mother of sorts to a pack of chefs, journalists, authors, restaurateurs and food purveyors who helped create the modern American food scene. That this housewife and mother from Walnut Creek, Calif., whose woes included alcohol and agoraphobia, was able, in late middle age, to rise above her troubles, find herself and begin forging a successful food career in the 1970s was an inspiration for...

Paul Kahan's wait is over. For more than seven years, Blackbird, his West Randolph Street restaurant, has garnered high-profile raves from critics across the nation. But despite previous nominations, he had never won a James Beard award for his cooking, although the restaurant won in 2002 for best design. The awards are considered the Oscars of the food industry, in no small part because they are voted on by one's peers. That changed last week when Kahan was named best Midwest chef at this year's...

Paul Kahan, the Chicago chef overseeing the restaurant empire that includes Blackbird, Avec, and The Publican, shared in the top prize at the 2013 James Beard Foundation Awards in New York Monday, winning in the outstanding chef category. Kahan shared the national award with another chef also operating a large dining portfolio: David Chang of New York's Momofuku Restaurant Group. For the Beards, regarded as the Oscars of the American culinary scene, it was the third...

James Beard was a superb cook, a dedicated teacher and the most significant single repository of information about cooking and eating during America's 20th Century. For those of us who knew him, no one in the food field, before or since, has equaled his sense of history and regional traditions, breadth of acquaintances and the invaluable sense of recall he referred to as "taste memory." Beard dominated his chosen...

Not to be limited to decorating America's food industry greats, the James Beard Foundation has announced plans to bring back its cross-country epicurean tour to highlight both top chefs and local cuisines in 10 cities, including Chicago. Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 19, the Taste America tour will make its way through Chicago, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The tour is scheduled to stop in Chicago the...

JAMES BEARD was remembered last week by some prominent colleagues: Barbara Kafka, author and consultant: "He changed the ways that food was cooked in America. For many he was the representative of the best in American food and the best in American life. He was extremely generous with his knowledge. He helped many in the field. He had an extraordinary memory and fund of knowledge, and he shared it." William Rice, editor of Food & Wine magazine: "People around here use the phrase `food...

A newsworthy 2012 from One Off Hospitality - the restaurant group behind Blackbird, Avec and Publican - was capped Monday with four James Beard Foundation Award nominations, an honor regarded as the Oscars of the culinary world. Its executive chef, Paul Kahan , is once again nominated as Outstanding Chef, one of six finalists nationwide. This is Kahan's fifth nod in the category, having previously been nominated in 2007,...

Making its introduction at the 1973 National Housewares Exposition in Chicago, the food processor from Cuisinart was not embraced initially by home chefs. Carl Sontheimer, a retired physicist and accomplished chef, adapted the idea from an appliance he had seen in France. It wasn't until he demonstrated it to Julia Child, James Beard and other noted chefs and food writers, however, that it became a kitchen staple and usurped the blender as the food-preparation device of choice.